The invention relates to an accessory bed scale system and, more particularly, to a bed scale system that provides for accurate patient weighing without requiring a patient to be moved out of the bed.
Hospitals, certified nursing homes (or skilled nursing facilities), and the like use patient weight changes to monitor current medical condition and treatment progress. Additionally, Medicare requires certified nursing homes to weigh patients daily to detect dehydration, disease, and malnutrition. Typically, in order to weigh a patient, the patient must be taken out of bed and transported to a weighing scale. Every hospital and/or nursing home, etc., however, has patients too ill for removal from bed. Another category of patients includes those unsteady on their feet for which a daily weighing procedure runs the risk of falls and broken bones.
Bed scale systems and accessory bed scales exist on the market that purport to address this problem, but typically are too costly for the facilities to purchase. Current bed scale systems are engineered for heavy duty class 3 certification for absolute patient weight accuracy. Such prior art design and construction details lead to costs that are 10 times the amount that nursing homes can afford to devote to individual patients. It would be desirable to develop a cost effective design to monitor patient weight changes at a cost that will enable purchase for every needy patient. It would further be desirable to provide a design that meets this need and utilizes a minimum of parts and manufacturing costs to deliver a scale that accurately tracks patient weight changes from day to day.